


you can carry half.

by jetjumped



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Fluff and Humor, In other words the bagel shop + teenagers au nobody truly asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 10:00:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11461254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jetjumped/pseuds/jetjumped
Summary: “Yeah I, uh, actually wanted to talk to you some more,” Fareeha says, rubbing the back of her neck. It was an odd mix; her tendency to blurt out her thoughts with the utmost confidence and her nerves, acting up in the presence of this one girl.-Fareeha Amari, a self-certified 'dashing highschool basketballer', tries to make friends.





	you can carry half.

**Author's Note:**

> Very raw one shot for a bagel shop au that went off the rails. Imagine: Teen Fareeha who doesn't always think about the consequences of her actions when she ends up embarrassing herself trying to make friends with a cute girl :) tldr; Fareeha being young and gay. Hope you enjoy!

“That girl? You could try talking to her, don’t just stare.”

“I know, I know, just watch me!”

Fareeha grins confidently and swings her legs over the counter, chucking her barista’s apron at Aleks who sticks out her tongue and gestures impatiently at the customers sat at a table by the window.

Two paces and Fareeha reaches them - two girls who both look up at the barista curiously. They were probably wondering if she was demanding something they had forgotten, perhaps a tip, what with her tight lipped expression and furrowed brow. The blonde one with reading glasses perched on the tip of her nose opens her mouth to speak up but when they make eye contact, Fareeha abruptly turns on her heel and walks back to the counter in an almost robotic fashion.

“Did you at least get her name?”

“...”

“Your ears are red.”

Fareeha punches Aleks in the arm, the taller Russian snorting and slapping her on the back with enough force to send her tripping into the kitchen.

Fareeha had been working part time at a cafe near her school, mostly because her classmate and now fellow coworker insisted to the manager that her bagels were exceptional and her coffee brewing abilities the best Helix High had ever seen. Initially she didn’t intend to remain employed for longer than a week - the low pay given her age wasn’t great incentive to stay - but homework wasn’t so tough during the early months of the school year and soon a week had become a month.

“I’ll quit on Sunday,” Fareeha decides for the fifth time, letting the loose change slip from her palm into the cash register with a clink. With the cafe short on staff, she couldn’t always be in the kitchen whipping up yet another cream cheese and salmon bagel.

Aleks shrugs, taking the last customer’s order before replying. “You said that last week.”

“I  _ mean _ it this time, there’s a tournament coming up and I can’t lose my edge. Especially not when it’s King’s.”

Helix’s ‘rivals’, some might say, was King’s. King’s Row College was known for their academic prowess as much as their athletic ability, and basketball was their best sport as much as it was Fareeha’s.

“You should train with me after work, it would be good for you.”

“No time!” Fareeha says, shutting the cash register with a crash of coins that scatter between their respective boxes as it slams shut. Nodding at the door, she glances at Aleks, “Plus, I’ve still got to find out her name, right?”

Across the room, Aleks and Fareeha both watch as the bespectacled student leaves with her friend, covering her smile with the back of a hand as her shorter friend makes a humorous comment. They part ways on the pavement, Fareeha’s eyes wandering to the left as the blonde pops open her umbrella and skips away in that direction.

“What’s your plan?” Aleks asks with a smirk.

Fareeha’s confident grin only widens as she points to a bag of new textbooks left neglected by the table leg. 

“That.”

“Hah!” Aleks booms, “Funny plan. You better run before she disappears.”

“See you tomorrow then!”

Fareeha vaults the counter, freezes, and ducks back under it and skids around the corner to a door marked Staff Only. She returns with her name tag removed and her apron replaced by a leather jacket worn over her high school uniform.

Aleks only chuckles as Fareeha dashes out of the cafe to chase after the girl before her laughter stops short, the realisation that there were still counters to be cleaned and chairs to be stacked finally hitting her. That damn Amari.

Outside, Fareeha sprints through the rain, dodging puddles as best she can in the downpour. It’s a flawed plan, she knows, but she had come this far carrying the blonde’s textbooks that she couldn’t turn back now.

“Excuse me!” She shouts out, hoping to attract her attention and succeeding - including the attention of the other pedestrians huddling under umbrellas.

The girl turns around as Fareeha catches up, but as soon as she recognises the cafe barista, picks up the pace, walking faster and faster.

“Hey, wait! Your bag…”

The girl begins jogging.

Fareeha had no clue why she might start running away from someone who had saved them a trip back to the cafe for school gear. She shrugs and keeps pace alongside the girl, holding the bag to her chest to prevent anything spilling out and onto the pavement. 

“You forgot your stuff at my cafe,” she says between breaths, trying to get her to just look for  _ one _ second at the books inside.

The blonde slows down to glance at Fareeha.

Fareeha presents the bag with both hands, its slightly bedraggled appearance as a result of the rain and jostling it had sustained from the run. “Can I help you with it?”

“Ah, thank you, but it’s really not that heavy,” the girl says politely, “I wouldn’t really mind if you just gave it back to me.”

Fareeha waves her off, “I wouldn’t really mind carrying it, either. Please?”

The blonde lets out a single, confused ‘hah’, pushes her glasses up a little and begins walking away again. Fareeha gapes, unsure of where to go from here.

She could stop pursuing the girl, for one.

“It  _ is  _ odd to go up to somebody like that and stare. Then you just walk away with red cheeks,” Aleks had commented.

_ Oh god, she probably thinks I’m some kind of creep,  _ Fareeha realises as she stares blankly down the path the girl had fled.  _ No, I can fix this. My last chance - _

Fareeha begins running beside her once more, almost losing the bag’s contents as she scrambles to keep everything intact through sheer willpower.

“I’m Fareeha!” She attempts, “I’d like to be friends!”

The girl stops for what Fareeha takes to be her final chance before she blows it, and the words starts falling out faster than she can think them through.

“I’m a student from Helix, it’s near King’s. I saw you that day at the cafe, and everyday at the kiosk near King’s Park basketball courts. I thought, maybe we could talk, but I’m bad at that. Talking to new people, I mean. I just get... nervous,” Fareeha takes a breath, realising how fast her heart is racing from both nerves and the running. “I didn’t scare you, did I?”

Maybe the blonde hears a little of the pleading tone in Fareeha’s voice, or maybe she spots something else because there’s that little smile hidden by the back of her hand again, followed by a giggle.

Fareeha has no clue why she might be laughing and must have looked visibly baffled for it, which only makes her laugh more.

“Yes, actually. I thought you were mad at me, not that you wanted to be friends!” She admits, smoothing the flyaway strands of hair as she sweeps her glasses up to sit above her forehead.

“Mad?”

“Well, you came over to my friend and I the other day with an expression like this.” She frowns, pursing her lips and glaring daggers to demonstrate. “Then you didn’t say anything so we thought we had somehow frustrated you beyond words! And today, you followed me all this way through the rain.”

That made a lot of sense, Fareeha reflects with a nod and hum. She had at least a few inches of extra height on the blonde and her broad shoulders did nothing to make her seem any less intimidating. Having someone like that dashing after you with no clear intention and a loud voice must be pretty scary, even if they were just a student.

“Could I… still hold this for you?”

“My books? You don’t have to,” she says without sounding particularly mad. More amused than anything really, if that little smile was to hint at anything. “Unless you want something?”

“Yeah I, uh, actually wanted to talk to you some more,” Fareeha says, rubbing the back of her neck. It was an odd mix; her tendency to blurt out her thoughts with the utmost confidence and her nerves, acting up in the presence of this  _ one _ girl.

“... In that case, you can carry half.”

“Oh, okay!”

It’s a little easier making smalltalk after all that. Fareeha soon discovers her name is Angela. She attends King’s in the class above Fareeha’s and probably has the best grades in the school. Not that she says as much, Fareeha just figures based on the textbooks she finally hands over, only someone incredibly smart would be studying books issued for university students. There was the possibility that everyone at King’s was like this, but Fareeha refuses to acknowledge it.

When they arrive outside the library, Fareeha’s assumption that she would continue studying this evening is affirmed. She supposed studying was a bit like training, but in her opinion basketball would always be more fun by far when compared to a biochem textbook.

“Here is fine! Thanks for your help, Fareeha.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

Angela takes back her bag, reaching beneath the books for a small box which she holds out for Fareeha.

“Take this as my thank you! No, no, please accept it. I’d feel bad since you walked all this way.”

Fareeha looks at it, turning it over in her hands, both surprised and relieved that not only had Angela not only tolerated but perhaps even enjoyed her company. 

_ Swiss chocolate, yum.  _

“... Thanks!”

As Angela walks away with a wave, Fareeha waves back and calls out, “Good luck studying!”

“Thank you, have a good evening.” 

Angela smiles without covering her face this time and Fareeha can feel her ears heat up, even as she turns her back and heads for home. 

Jumping up and punching the air with a cheer, Fareeha doesn't notice a woman look up from the bus stop across the road and smile, bemused, when hearing Fareeha's laughter. In fact, most people Fareeha pass that evening can't help but smiling. It's tricky not to, sometimes, with happiness that infectious. Happiness that grew from knowing she would see Angela again soon, and happiness for others knowing they might meet someone like her, too. They would leap and cheer with joy at having made a new friend, and perhaps discovered the prospect of something more.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> Though, I'm not kidding anyone, I've been reading the manhua 'their story' and this is so heavily influenced by that - but I'd definitely recommend it! It's wonderfully cute and has topnotch art :)


End file.
